Montclair resident Charles Rosen, 50, has developed a business model intended to solve two challenges at the same time: Reviving the tradition of harvesting New Jersey apple crops to be used in hard cider, and employing ex-offenders to maintain them, while coaching them in valuable life skills.

His company, Ironbound Farm, uses its orchards, New Ark Farms in the New Jersey Highlands, to supply the apples used in its cider business, called Jersey Cider Works. So far, Ironbound Farm has released three products that are only available in New Jersey: the original Ironbound Hard Cider, Ironbound Summer Cider, and Devil’s Cut, which uses New Jersey cranberries and is named for the mythical New Jersey Devil.

The cider is produced in fermenters and cold tanks.(Photo11: Courtesy of Stephen Johnsen)

He's learned lessons as he's shifted careers.

Rosen started as a lawyer, became a movie producer (whose films include 1999’s "Three Seasons" starring Harvey Keitel), opened an advertising agency, ran for congress, and is now a farmer. He uses what he's learned to benefit his company, and ultimately the lives of the people he employs. He can provide legal advice to his workers, and knows how to tell the story of his company to consumers. His advertising experience helps him carefully articulate an identity value for the brand. Of his movie-making, he says, “I wanted to make money and taste fame. However, I quickly came to realize that I wasn’t happy with any of those things. When I started this company, I knew I had a yearning to serve people.”

Rosen believes that success should not come at the expense of others.

He believes that people are scared that there isn’t enough success for everyone to share. “There’s a ton of pie to go around,” Rosen says. “Our problem isn’t that there isn’t enough, it’s how it’s being distributed.” He likes to see that his community honors and supports everyone, from the grower to the end consumer.

The product(Photo11: Courtesy of Ironbound Farm)

He wants to inspire others to connect with the community through land and food.

Rosen believes that technology has only made communities colder and disconnected. “I can order anything on Amazon and make it same-day delivery,” he says. “But in the end, I’m not connected to anyone who made the product.”

His goal is to prove that successful companies can be for-profit and treat people with dignity, and still make money.

Rosen wants other companies to start paying their employees decent wages, and to start caring about them. “I worry about the world my kids will grow up in,” he says. “It’s pretty terrifying if we keep going down the path we are on. There is a path we all can take that is more sustainable, holistically speaking.”

Ironbound Farm is located in Franklin Township.(Photo11: Courtesy of Hush Park)

Rosen once helped an Egyptian family find refuge in New Jersey.

A man who was part of the Egyptian Olympic team, whom Rosen describes as a “giant bear,” was working at a gas station trying to save money to bring his family over to the United States. Rosen and his team brought them over to escape the pressures of ISIS. Not long after, the children settled in public schools, the family bought a little house and the man currently works at Ironbound Farm. Rosen recalls a time when the man’s alarm went off on his phone, and Arabic music was playing. He realized that it was the man’s Muslim call to prayer. “I told him to take a break to pray, and this huge guy with huge muscles just comes and gives me a hug,” he says. “I realized that he’s never been in a situation where his white-Jewish boss told him to do that. This is what community feels like.”

Rosen held his son’s bar mitzvah at the farm and called it a “farm mitzvah.”

He likes to expose his children to the people who work at the farm so they can gain a sense of diversity. The entire staff attended the “farm mitzvah” and brought their children because his son wanted them there. “My son was running around with one of our crew chiefs’ sons while we watched the sun set,” Rosen says. “It’s pretty special to be able to do that with someone who has been in gangs his whole life and whose son is…just my son’s friend.”

Ironbound Farm's tasting room will be open on Saturdays and Sundays starting mid-October.(Photo11: Courtesy of Hush Park)

Rosen lived in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan before settling in Montclair 13 years ago.

The Canadian native appreciates the public schools his children are enrolled in, the sports they play, and the diverse group of friends they’ve made during their time in Montclair, though he originally resisted the move. “I’d always come home from parties [in Montclair] and be like ‘Those people were awesome,’ and my wife would say ‘Well what’s wrong with that?’ and I’d be like, ‘Well I want to leave, I don’t want to like anybody,’” he says. This caused him to dive deeper into his town, and eventually he became an active member of the community. “It was interesting for me because leaving the city to come to Montclair, we came to understand what community is really about,” he says. “I couldn’t even imagine living back in the city right now."